As we wrap up 2024, the entire Proyecto Sustentar team extends our gratitude and appreciation for your continued support and partnership to strengthen labor compliance and competitiveness of Mexico’s tomato and chile pepper sectors. As the third year of Sustentar’s implementation, 2024 brought significant growth in the project and we are eager to build upon this work with you and all of our partners in the new year.
This year, Sustentar launched a new project logo and slogan: Let’s Promote the Fulfillment of Decent Work. In support of this mission, we have made progress in promoting understanding and compliance with USMCA labor standards by conducting customized training for growers, companies, recruiters and workers.
At the same time, Sustentar established partnerships with 17 private sector stakeholders in the tomato and chile pepper sectors this year. These partners have all completed the Social Fingerprint assessment – which evaluates their labor performance and management systems to identify areas for improvement – and have all established Social Performance Teams (SPTs) to implement social compliance systems within their operations. Looking ahead to next year, Sustentar will continue to support our private sector partners in their commitment to improving labor conditions through implementing improvement plans, expand training and curriculum, and launch of ethical recruitment mechanisms. We will also partner with additional private sector stakeholders in the tomato and chile pepper sectors (located in Baja California, Baja California Sur, or Chihuahua). Please send us a message for more information if you are interested in partnering with the project.
Social Fingerprint®
SAI’s Social Fingerprint is a set of assessments, trainings and tools that help companies measure and improve their social performance. It is global, flexible, cross-industry, code agnostic, and applicable for companies of any size.
Social Performance Teams
Social Performance Teams (SPTs) are representative groups of managers and workers in each company responsible for coordinating and facilitating the organization’s social compliance system implementation.
We also engaged with communities throughout Baja California, Baja California Sur, and Chihuahua to form Community Circles this year. Within these spaces, local leaders, community members, and workers came together to identify labor-related challenges in their communities – such as lack of education access and poor working conditions. We will continue our work with these communities in the new year by supporting the implementation of their solutions to these challenges.
We look forward to continuing our work together to improve labor practices and strengthen Mexico’s tomato and chile pepper sectors in 2025.
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